Wrapping up the Spring Nature Block

From Homeschooling

Funny thing about the Nature Blocks in this curriculum. I really don't like them. I feel challenged by them in a way that makes me uncomfortable. I feel unfocused, unsure and at loose ends. Usually they only last a week, but this one was a scheduled 3 weeks! 3 FULL weeks. I tried at first to get out in nature as much as possible and that was my plan, sticking in math games and reading, crafts and piano and recorder as well.  But the nature around here stymies me. There is always too little (like my concrete back yard) or too much (like the massive desert-y mountain hikes around here that overwhelm my kids.) I try my darndest to embrace the place I am living and find the season here. I mean, after all, we live in "Endless Summer" don't we? I hate driving many miles to get to real nature. And I feel ridiculous when I dream about getting away when so many people come here to go on vacation and I think about how I would never come here on vacation. Never. What am I to learn from this place? And these Nature Blocks that bug me so?

From Homeschooling

Honestly, I just don't know. I recognize that my dislike of them is because of this, but I can't break through the surface long enough to understand what I should come away with.

I even went so far as to get this book Seasonal Guide to the Natural Year - Southern California, Baja to help me know the seasons here and it really is great. I've recommended it all over the place. But still. So much driving.

Funny thing? I'm extending this into next week a touch because last year's Spring Nature Block included a trip into our friendly nearby megalopolis to do Passover shopping and to also enjoy a wonderful nature reserve right in the middle of the city. With red-winged blackbirds. And Snowy Egrets. And fish flopping out of the lake. 

Spring is coming...

A little taste of the first day of Spring here at Casa de Woolfairy

From Homeschooling

The last of the reddest and juiciest strawberries ever plus a bunch of Mommy's favorite flower - ranunculas!

From Homeschooling

Tomato seeds sprouting a few weeks after we planted them.

From Homeschooling

B's buzzing around the roses

Happy Spring!

Exploring the Creek

Can you tell we are in the throes of our Early Spring Nature Block? Today we went exploring a creek looking for tadpoles and whatever else we might find. 

From Homeschooling

No tadpoles. 

From Homeschooling

A huge cool mushroom 

From Homeschooling

and plenty of cold water.

Stones on the beach

From Homeschooling

We went to the beach today and spent hours enjoying digging in the sand and wading (and some splashing) in the surf. Digging holes. Filling in holes. Collecting ocean water to create a little pool. Finding stones to throw into the waves. Running into friends. And stacking stones.

The Old Man and the Bear

From Homeschooling

Our last activity rounding out the Animal Legends Block.

Happy 4th Birthday B!

From Woolfairy

Rabbit's Money Crop

From Homeschooling

From Homeschooling

We worked on this project together today and revisited the story as we worked. I was in charge of the trees and some of the auxiliary animals, Z did the main characters and rabbits hut. Schooling has been challenging the last few months and I realize that I am a bit burnt out. I spoke to my Waldorf mentor and she said I should back off of the writing a bit and only do a small amount every week and step up some of the other things, which is what we have been doing. I don't sweat school. Z practices music daily, we do mental math, number journeys and the occasional worksheet, try to get outside regularly and have been working through the Animal Legends Main Lesson Block. It has been much less "schoolish" around here and the butting heads problem has diminished. Hopefully I'll be back to my old self as well.

The Hungry Fox

From Woolfairy

Z's in front then mine then the one that 3yo demanded (and then pretty well smooshed.)

The Tortoise and the Hare

From Woolfairy

Is it strange that my 2nd grader insists that he wants the hare to win and therefore will not use his movable painting to let the tortoise win? Can you guess which is his?

The Wise Old Goat and the Wolves

From Woolfairy

From Woolfairy

The City Mouse and the Country Mouse

(I started telling it with that title and so I got stuck with it. Oops!)

So we told this story this week, made little felt mice to have a puppet play with, and did a MLB page. The photos are awful, so sorry!

From Woolfairy

From Woolfairy

I thought I should get something current up!

Catching up

I can't believe it has been almost a month since I posted. Between Z's birthday, Hanukkah and DH's 2 weeks off (which end when he returns to work tomorrow :sniff:) I just haven't gotten around to it.  We just got back from a whirlwind tour of OC which we decide to do very very last minute. 

But first we went fishing.

And, even though I had only just gotten over a cold, we headed down to OC and checked in at a great place in Irvine. After dinner, we tried out their indoor pool and then headed upstairs to bed.  

Next morning we finally got hold of a friend who lives there and planned to meet to do a little letterboxing. In the meantime we headed over to The Cup in Aliso which has the best coffee in the whole world. Then we drove past our old condo because B wanted to see where he was born (since every time we are near the place where Z was born in LA we drive by and mention it.) Found out that at least one condo in the complex is going for half of what they were selling for when we left. Half! Crazy.

Then we met up at a park I had never gone to while we lived down there. And too bad because it was a wonderful park (Canyon View) And to our wonderful surprise, we got to see some other friends who happened to be in town visiting from Washington. When we were all way too cold from being outside in a canyon and exhausted from hiking even the little bit we did, we all headed over to dinner at the Spectrum where another old friend joined us. It was so amazing to be able to catch up with friends.

The next day, I woke up with a resurgence of my cold.  Of course. So although we had considered staying another night, we packed it up and checked out and hit coffee at the Cup again. Then lunch for everyone at a favorite sushi place and a little window shopping. Found out that Native Foods had opened a place in Aliso. Seriously! Glad that happened after we moved away, because we would have been broke if it was that close to me. Best tempeh ever. And tried out the cupcakes at a new cupcake bakery that just opened - Baby Cakes. So seriously good.  And then home and for me - straight to bed. Where I do believe I am headed again.  I'll figure out why my photos aren't tranferring later. Probably.

More Main Lesson stuff

Blackfoot the Elk

(Edited to add Z's completed picture)

One of the 5 Ancients from "The King of Ireland's Son" I was greatly inspired by a wonderful chalkboard drawing on Flickr done by a teacher in a Waldorf School. Now if only I could get Z to do the work without a major struggle, we'd be making progress. I don't know that we will get to form drawing today because so much energy and time has been spent trying to get main lesson work out of him. Now he's hiding in the bathroom, likely reading, to avoid the 2nd chalkboard drawing today (which happens to be the one above).

But this afternoon we will do some firewood stacking. His body could use a little exertion, especially after so much downtime over the weekend (he got sick Thursday night and kept a fever up most of the weekend.)

The King of Ireland's Son, part II

Actually, we are at the end of week 1 (of 3) and this is the most schoolish we've been all year. There is so much work to get through for him of the type that he dreads and isn't really that hard for him but it looks like a lot and therefore is The Meanest Thing I've Ever Made Him Do. 2 chalkboard drawings a day plus writing. After Saints and Heroes, which was 2 chalkboard drawings a week...

But he's made so much progress...

The King of Ireland's Son, part I

So I've mainly been twittering until I figure how to sync up my new phone with the computer (our computer is old and every time we try to update it, it crashes, so we have gotten a new laptop for Hanukkah) But we started a new Main Lesson Block this morning - The King of Ireland's Son. And Z has stunned me with the beauty of his work on this today. The artwork and the handwriting were way beyond his usual work. I am so pleased with how he settled into doing it and did it with joy (And only a few mistakes).

Some Acorn Math

We're working on place value around these parts - mostly solidifying that when you are doing stacked math, you are really subtracting a ones, tens and hundreds column instead of all ones lined up. To help us understand that a bit, I made 20(!) origami paper boxes to represent our tens, got 2 box tops to represent hundreds (because 10 of the little boxes fit in them nicely) and of course acorns for the ones. What you see here represents 148 acorns 1 box top (filled with 10 origami boxes of 10 acorns each), 4 origami boxes of 10 acorns each and 8 acorns on their lonesome. This was the starting setup for 148-52:

The solution, as you are aware I'm sure, is 9 origami boxes with 10 acorns each and 6 acorns.

Fall Dyeing

So we are finally getting around to removing the blossoms from the Mexican Marigold bush and preparing the fiber (in this case cotton yarn and a little wool as well) so that we can do some plant dyeing.

Here are the boys helping me to do some of the blossom picking. B especially enjoys burying his hands in the giant pile of flower petals. Can you blame him?

This is a giant bowl full of the petals and still the bush is only half picked over.



Marigolds simmering on the stove. Can I tell you how odd the smell of simmering flowers is? Last time I did this outside, so the smell wasn't obvious. It isn't bad, just different. I wouldn't go so far as good though. BTW, while all pictures lately will be taken on my crummy cell phone camera until I get my new phone, this one is clearly the worst. Lack of flash really does make for a tough shot. I did get photos on my regular camera though.

The color isn't reading well, but the cotton yarn came out a greenish yellow and the wool came out a soft yellow. We're off to hike this morning and more marigolds this afternoon. Well there's more yarn...

Edited to change yarn pictures because this one is much closer to the actual color.

Aunt and the boys

Playing Lego. Big big fun! :)

Back (mostly...)

So I have this camera full of photos of our last month, but I have no way of getting them off of the camera. The card reader and the laptop are down now and so I am down waiting until the memory card is full and switching it out. No good can come of this.

But we have been so busy over the last month with holidays, sukkah building, fall break, fall nature block and now starting up Math Block III. Hopefully we'll iron out the photo issue soon and there will be photos of our progress.

Right now we are in the throes of dealing with mobile phones. DH finally succumbed and bought a Wing used because he lost his cell phone and had taken to carrying mine around until he figured things out. But he feels bad because I am still carrying around the same crummy phone we got almost 3 years ago free with our contract renewal. One he won't use because he hates it so very very much. So now I have to decide what it is that I want in a phone and if the G1 is best for me or the iPhone. What I want is a camera, an mp3 player, internet access and relative ease of use. The downside to the G1 is that data service is required and we would need to renew our contract (we are on a month-to-month with them right now)

I'd love opinions if anyone has any.